The meeting on Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription will be an open international meeting. This meeting follows on the success of three previous meetings on the same topic in 1989, 1991, and 1993. The need for a meeting devoted to the topic of Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription is evidenced by the rapid advances being made in this field during the last years. This meeting will ensure that the most recent results and methodologies are exchanged and discussed in an atmosphere of face to face contact. This will lead to enhanced progress in this rapidly moving field. The cost of the meeting as requested in direct grants and fees paid by participants is modest compared to the expense of operating even a single research laboratory, yet the benefits of free exchange of information will compensate for this expense many times over. The meeting will be open and attendance will only be limited by the facilities available to 425 participants. Oral presentations by invited speakers will raise the general interest of the meeting by ensuring that the leaders in the field present their latest results. These invited presentations will be complemented by oral presentations selected from submitted abstracts and three separate poster sessions. The areas to be covered by the Mechanisms of Eukaryotic Transcription Conference include studies on l) general transcription factors and initiation complexes including mammalian, yeast, and Drosophila systems; 2) transcription elements and factors involved in tissue-specific expression; 3) inducible transcription factors and nuclear signaling events; 4) the influence of chromatin on transcription; 5) the structure and function of transcription factors; 6) transcription of developmentally regulated genes; and alterations in transcription factors that result in human disease and cancer. In addition, there will be representative lectures on transcriptional control mechanisms in prokaryotes so that comparisons can be made.